Community-led school in South Sudan brings ‘spring of hope’ during humanitarian crisis

Fourteen years after gaining independence, a community-driven initiative is igniting hope for a greater future through education in South Sudan.

In Mundri County, a region grappling with severe humanitarian challenges, local residents led by church and community leaders have launched a grassroots school project geared toward empowering the subsequent generation.

The effort emerged after locals took part in Transforming Communities, a training programme by the Christian charity Tearfund.

Participants, inspired to take ownership of their community’s development, decided to construct a faculty from scratch to tackle the tutorial barriers faced by children in the world.

Emmanuel George Ali, 42, a neighborhood leader who accomplished the Tearfund training, commented: “The training was like an awakening for what we will potentially do. We realised that as an alternative of waiting for donors to return and solve our problems here, the answer to our problems lies inside us. It was time to get up and do something.

“Children faced significant challenges accessing education because of the dearth of nearby schools and infrastructure. Many children were walking several kilometres through difficult and dangerous terrain to achieve the closest school. This was the explanation that the majority of our youngsters had no basic literacy and numeracy skills.

“We decided to determine a nursery and first school in Mundri. Among us, some were trained teachers, so we pooled resources – each human and financial – and sought support from the local church, parents and other community members.”

With support from local churches and families, residents pooled their skills and limited resources to construct the Teacher’s Union Nursery and Primary School, using mud bricks, bamboo, and thatch.

Despite modest beginnings, the college now serves nearly 600 students and employs 17 teachers, all backed by the community.

According to Erickson Bisetsa, Tearfund’s South Sudan Country Director, the college stands as “a spring of hope” not only for youngsters but in addition for adults.

In addition to formal education, the college offers literacy classes for adults and has inspired unity amongst diverse community members.

“This school is a lifetime investment and perpetually the youngsters of this community will at all times have a learning space,” said 71-year-old Pastor Charles Ruben of the Sudan Pentecostal Church in Mundri.

As the world’s youngest country, greater than 7 million people face food insecurity in South Sudan, while floods, conflict, poverty and disease outbreaks – including a recent cholera surge – compound the challenges.

Despite this, experts point to South Sudan’s youth population – over 8.5 million – as a possible to drive lasting peace and shared prosperity if given the appropriate support.

To sustain the initiative, local teachers have launched small farming ventures and savings and loans groups resembling Village Savings and Loan Association.

They have also collaborated with local groups to supply teacher training, aiming to reinforce the standard of education.

In response to growing needs, Tearfund has issued an urgent appeal to help its church partners across South Sudan and other crisis-hit regions.